Welcoming celebration by the young people at Barangaroo, East Darling Harbour of Sydney.
Discourse of the Holy Father (excerpts)
Dear Young People, (…)
Wherever we are from, we are here at last in Sydney. And together we stand in our
world as God’s family, disciples of Christ, empowered by his Spirit to be witnesses
of his love and truth for everyone! I wish firstly to thank the Aboriginal Elders
who welcomed me prior to my boarding the boat at Rose Bay. I am deeply moved to stand
on your land, knowing the suffering and injustices it has borne, but aware too of
the healing and hope that are now at work, rightly bringing pride to all Australian
citizens. To the young indigenous - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders - and
the Tokelauans, I express my thanks for your stirring welcome. Through you, I send
heartfelt greetings to your peoples. (…) Standing before me I see a vibrant image
of the universal Church. The variety of nations and cultures from which you hail
shows that indeed Christ’s Good News is for everyone; it has reached the ends of the
earth. Yet I know too that a good number of you are still seeking a spiritual homeland.
Some of you, most welcome among us, are not Catholic or Christian. Others of you
perhaps hover at the edge of parish and Church life. To you I wish to offer encouragement:
step forward into Christ’s loving embrace; recognize the Church as your home. No
one need remain on the outside, for from the day of Pentecost the Church has been
one and universal. This evening I wish also to include those who are not present
among us. I am thinking especially of the sick or mentally ill, young people in prison,
those struggling on the margins of our societies, and those who for whatever reason
feel alienated from the Church. To them I say: Jesus is close to you! Feel his healing
embrace, his compassion and mercy! (…) And in obedience to Christ’s own command,
they set forth, bearing witness to the greatest story ever: that God has become one
of us, that the divine has entered human history in order to transform it, and that
we are called to immerse ourselves in Christ’s saving love which triumphs over evil
and death. Saint Paul, in his famous speech to the Areopagus, introduced the message
in this way: “God gives everything – including life and breath – to everyone … so
that all nations might seek God and, by feeling their way towards him, succeed in
finding him. In fact he is not far from any of us, since it is in him that we live
and move and have our being” (Acts 17: 25-28). And ever since, men and women have
set out to tell the same story, witnessing to Christ’s truth and love, and contributing
to the Church’s mission. (…) They became the humble but tenacious builders of so
much of the social and spiritual heritage which still today brings goodness, compassion
and purpose to these nations. And they went on to inspire another generation. We
think immediately of the faith which sustained Blessed Mary MacKillop in her sheer
determination to educate especially the poor, and Blessed Peter To Rot in his steadfast
resolution that community leadership must always include the Gospel. Think also of
your own grandparents and parents, your first teachers in faith. They too have made
countless sacrifices of time and energy, out of love for you. (…) Today, it is
my turn. (…) Yet the views afforded of our planet from the air were truly wondrous.
The sparkle of the Mediterranean, the grandeur of the north African desert, the lushness
of Asia’s forestation, the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, the horizon upon which the
sun rose and set, and the majestic splendour of Australia’s natural beauty which I
have been able to enjoy these last couple of days; these all evoke a profound sense
of awe. (…) And there is more – something hardly perceivable from the sky – men
and women, made in nothing less than God’s own image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26).
At the heart of the marvel of creation are you and I, the human family “crowned with
glory and honour”. (…) And drawn into silence, into a spirit of thanksgiving, into
the power of holiness, we ponder. What do we discover? Perhaps reluctantly we
come to acknowledge that there are also scars which mark the surface of our earth:
erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world’s mineral and ocean resources
in order to fuel an insatiable consumption. Some of you come from island nations
whose very existence is threatened by rising water levels; others from nations suffering
the effects of devastating drought. (…) And there is more. What of man, the
apex of God’s creation? Every day we encounter the genius of human achievement.
From advances in medical sciences and the wise application of technology, to the creativity
reflected in the arts, the quality and enjoyment of people’s lives in many ways are
steadily rising. Among yourselves there is a readiness to take up the plentiful opportunities
offered to you. (…) And we discover that not only the natural but also the social
environment – the habitat we fashion for ourselves – has its scars; wounds indicating
that something is amiss. Here too, in our personal lives and in our communities,
we can encounter a hostility, something dangerous; a poison which threatens to corrode
what is good, reshape who we are, and distort the purpose for which we have been created.
Examples abound, as you yourselves know. Among the more prevalent are alcohol and
drug abuse, and the exaltation of violence and sexual degradation, often presented
through television and the internet as entertainment. I ask myself, could anyone
standing face to face with people who actually do suffer violence and sexual exploitation
“explain” that these tragedies, portrayed in virtual form, are considered merely “entertainment”?
There is also something sinister which stems from the fact that freedom and tolerance
are so often separated from truth. This is fuelled by the notion, widely held today,
that there are no absolute truths to guide our lives. Relativism, by indiscriminately
giving value to practically everything, has made “experience” all-important. Yet,
experiences, detached from any consideration of what is good or true, can lead, not
to genuine freedom, but to moral or intellectual confusion, to a lowering of standards,
to a loss of self-respect, and even to despair. Dear friends, life is not governed
by chance; it is not random. Your very existence has been willed by God, blessed
and given a purpose (cf. Gen 1:28)! Life is not just a succession of events or experiences,
helpful though many of them are. It is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful.
It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom;
it is in this – in truth, in goodness, and in beauty – that we find happiness and
joy. (…) Christ offers more! Indeed he offers everything! Only he who is the
Truth can be the Way and hence also the Life. (…) Dear friends, in your homes,
schools and universities, in your places of work and recreation, remember that you
are a new creation! Not only do you stand before the Creator in awe, rejoicing at
his works, you also realize that the sure foundation of humanity’s solidarity lies
in the common origin of every person, the high-point of God’s creative design for
the world. As Christians you stand in this world knowing that God has a human face
- Jesus Christ - the “way” who satisfies all human yearning, and the “life” to which
we are called to bear witness, walking always in his light (cf. ibid., 100). The
task of witness is not easy. There are many today who claim that God should be left
on the sidelines, and that religion and faith, while fine for individuals, should
either be excluded from the public forum altogether or included only in the pursuit
of limited pragmatic goals. This secularist vision seeks to explain human life and
shape society with little or no reference to the Creator. It presents itself as neutral,
impartial and inclusive of everyone. But in reality, like every ideology, secularism
imposes a world-view. If God is irrelevant to public life, then society will be shaped
in a godless image, and debate and policy concerning the public good will be driven
more by consequences than by principles grounded in truth. Yet experience shows
that turning our back on the Creator’s plan provokes a disorder which has inevitable
repercussions on the rest of the created order (cf. 1990 World Day of Peace Message,
5). (…) But what of our social environment? Are we equally alert to the signs
of turning our back on the moral structure with which God has endowed humanity (cf.
2007 World Day of Peace Message, 8)? (…) And so we are led to reflect on what place
the poor and the elderly, immigrants and the voiceless, have in our societies. How
can it be that domestic violence torments so many mothers and children? How can it
be that the most wondrous and sacred human space – the womb – has become a place of
unutterable violence? (…) Our world has grown weary of greed, exploitation and
division, of the tedium of false idols and piecemeal responses, and the pain of false
promises. Our hearts and minds are yearning for a vision of life where love endures,
where gifts are shared, where unity is built, where freedom finds meaning in truth,
and where identity is found in respectful communion. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit! This is the hope held out by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is to bear witness
to this reality that you were created anew at Baptism and strengthened through the
gifts of the Spirit at Confirmation. Let this be the message that you bring from
Sydney to the world!
The full text of the Holy Father's discourses are
available on the Holy See's website: www.vatian.va, and in the vatican newspaper
"L' Osservatore Romano"